Kitchen Design Think Tank

Kitchen design is a functional art form with the ability to influence the surrounding architecture in a way that can encourage harmony and balance.   Dramatic material choices can help to categorise functional art but it can also alienate the human desire for comfort and practicality. This design is certainly impressive, boasting a futuristic influence upon its regressive and minimal architectural surroundings.   The kitchen is allowed to sprawl out beyond its natural position with an additional line of cabinetry creating a sheltered harbour of functionality for the kitchen.   The free hanging and cantilevered cabinetry also helps to deliver a bold and interesting visual experience. But is it possible that this design has overstepped the mark, becoming art first and kitchen second.   Kitchen design is about creating an aesthetical and artistic impression but it is also about satisfying our pre-programmed desire to be subconsciously soothed within our private livin...

You grab your coat, put on your shoes and run out the door.   As you turn the key in your heavily modified DeLorean watching as the flux capacitor pulsates with time travelling energy you breathe deeply trying to contain your excitement, as today you are going to see the kitchen of the future.   As you punch in the coordinates in time you notice that there is something wrong as the date you have been given is not in the future it is actually in the past!   Your driving gloves make a griping sound against the steering wheel as the speedometer hits 88 miles per hour and you reach your destination.   Welcome to the vision that is Tron designs Corian by Ernestomeda. This concept design was created to showcase the design versatility of Corian and in doing so clearly illustrates that the only limitation to designing a kitchen is the human imagination.   The design is hinged upon aesthetical presence and uses electroluminescence to wow the viewer.   There is a...

The I-Food Kitchen concept by Chiara Daniele is a classic example of how designers are exploring kitchen design, taking influence from other design disciplines like set design and fusing ideas into functional concepts for the future.    This concept design boasts an array of gadgetry that makes the kitchen into an automated terminal of convenience!   There are integrated electronic controls that allow the hob to weigh added ingredients, the sink can shape shift into a washing machine, everything is touch control and all of the appliances are on the same electrical grid so that they can efficiently share power and reduce energy wastage!   But although this concept looks and sounds futuristic The Mogul would argue that many of the ideas and concepts here are already in the mainstream market!   Touch control, automated, mobile, shape shifting, kitchen pods are being designed and manufactured every day....maybe concept kitchen design is actually becoming a reali...

The kitchen has actually become an island, and the island kitchen presents an opportunity for functional and artistic self expressionism!   The three arms of this design reach out towards the surrounding architecture longing for a physical connection to the structural boundaries that have historically manipulated and constrained its development.      But this metaphor of historical reflection is only a symbolic gesture, as this design is also expressing its new found freedom, its ability to stretch and control an open plan space and encourage the seamless integration between sociability and function!   This kitchen island has no sides and is coming out....with pride! It is also interesting that by looking back in time and considering the design path that has liberated the kitchen you are also seeing into the future!   Is it also coincidental that this island is shaped like a flux capacitor!?   Maybe the appliances run on 1.21 gigawatts of power!

This simplistic design is futuristically inspired to the point that it has been given its own protective force field.   This buffering layer wraps itself around the functional core like a piece of Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum, adding huge aesthetic interest to the design and even providing tasty voids and shelves that could be practically optimised and even individually personalised. There is pod like feeling to this kitchen because the functional segments are independent, detached from each other, being characterised by soft curved edges.   The outer wrap amplifies the soft edges further by capturing all of the independent elements together, making them whole and visually united. This design is also crying out for some atmospheric back lighting, a colour changing element that allows for mood reactions and human control.   The spacing between the outer wrapping element and the functional core would be more intensely showcased if the space between could glow red and then blue ...

The Mogul always appreciates something new and this concept certainly causes us to rethink things a little. This compact and functional kitchen would be perfectly suited to the interior architecture of the Star ship Enterprise or would be the perfect functional prop on the abstract stage set at a Pet Shop Boys concert.   However just like Electropop this kitchen will not be universally accepted, instead it may find a limited following of open minded, artistically influenced individuals who may wear base ball caps and futuristic clothing! Our approach to everything must change for this design to become main stream.   Love it!

Petra by TM Italia - Epitomizes The Moguls design ethos – sit back and enjoy the ride! See it at Grand Designs Live 2011!

Open your mind to the possibilities of what your kitchen can and will become!  The clock is ticking on some fantastic ideas!  Kitchen design is maturing as a discipline.

This concept kitchen designed by Zivile Januskaityte may seem extreme but it tests the imagination about what the kitchen is now and what it may become in the future! There are some great ideas here that could be fine tuned and become more main stream in the not too distant future.   For example the induction cooker is actually the rolling ceramic panels that close over the entire kitchen.   This is a great "Shape Shifting" idea but it has its limitations when the surface is also being used as a worktop. Careful consideration needs to be given to reverse heat transfer.   Reverse heat transfer happens when the substance being cooked becomes very hot and transfers its heat energy back through the pot and onto the ceramic induction cooker!   This process is not an issue with standard induction cooking but it may become one if the cook top is not highly visible, the cook top can move and if there is limited preparation space!   The Mo...

A vision of the future.  Takes me back to my last post! The Living Interactive Kitchen Concept